Evolution and the Change within the Species of Plants and Animals

By M.R. DeHaan

There is, of course, evolution and change within the various species of plants and animals, but never a crossing over from one into the other - never a gradual process by which a plant became a fish or a fowl. This is the error which modern man makes. He recognizes the fact that the effect of climate, food, environment, and natural enemies have caused great changes in plants and animals, resulting in diversities so great that they have lost much of their resemblance to one another, but one species never evolves into another.

Just an example: There are many different kinds of oak trees in the world - all the offspring of' a single. seed. Through generations of change they have evolved or degenerated into various kinds of varieties. Depending on soil and minerals, rainfall, heat and climate, they have inherent, divinely created, natural powers adapted themselves to these varying environments so that acorns are huge in size, and in other areas' small. Some are light brown, others dark; thickshelled and thin-shelled; sweet or bitter. Almost limitless are the changes which may occur due to different conditions. But they are all oak trees bearing only acorns. Think of the varieties of apples produced by cultivation, careful selective pollination and crossing, but man still has not been able to grow an orange on an apple tree. All these changes and adaptations occur only within the limits of the species. And this the Word of God asserts in Genesis 1, that He made the fruit tree yielding its fruit after its kind (species), the birds after their kind, and the various animals after their kind. And the missing link between the species has never been found, for it does not exist.

There is much which goes under the name of evolution which is not evolution, but should be called development or improvement instead. The Bible statement "let it bring forth after its kind", does not preclude the development of a wide range of varieties within that particular species or kind.

Unfortunately a great deal of misunderstanding has resulted from the use of the term "evolution" to denote mere improvement of a species or the development of new varieties of the same species.

There are many varieties of the same species; for instance, there are different kinds of apples, or different kinds of pickles. We have within the canine or dog species many varieties: foxes, wolves, and dingoes, from the diminutive Mexican Chihuahua to the massive St. Bernard, or Great Dane, but they are all dogs. So there are many varieties of cats within the feline kind, such as the different breeds of domestic cats: Siamese, Angora, and Maltese, not to mention other members of the family such as lions, leopards, tigers, wild cats, etc. But all are still cats. All the varieties of apples came from one original kind of apple, but by culture and scientific pollination and grafting were developed into greatly improved different varieties. But this is not evolution; this is merely improvement, development and cultivation.

Evolution teaches the chan'ge or transmutation by means of a slow process of one species into another, from a lower to a higher, resulting in an entirely new kind, such as a fish into a mammal, or a goat into a cow, or a hippopotamus into a horse, or a monkey into a man. This is quite a different thing than cultivating new varieties of the same species. Not one single proven example of an evolution from one species to another has ever been found. The missing link is a link which is entirely in the realm of supposition without one single speck of tangible proof. We therefore do not reject an "evolution" which refers to a development or improvement within the species, but we do reject an evolution which assumes a transgression of the basic, inviolable law of God,"let it bring forth after its kind."

Today science must abide by that law. "Like produces like"; or "everything after its kind." Not one example of evolution of a lower order of beings into a higher has yet been found. The whole theory is built upon speculative and dubious findings of parts or organisms in a state of decay and only remotely related to each other. Science today itself defines a species as a group capable of reproducing offspring of any two parents. This fertility determines and prove that the parents were of the same species. Members of two different species usually cannot interbreed, but even in the rare cases where two very closely related species can reproduce, the resulting offspring is sterile resulting offspring is sterile and the evolutionist theory is stopped at its outset. As an example we have the mule, which is the offspring of a jackass and a mare, but is completely sterile and cannot reproduce thus making impossible the emergence of a new species.

Since members of different species (kinds in Bible language) do not interbreed, there can be no evolution. Without a change or production of a new species, there can be no evolution; therefore, the theory of evolution is not only unscriptural but is utterly unscientific, unproven and contrary to all scientific facts and logic.